No you haven’t.

Wayne Heller and Ceder Mannan (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Seen this before.

Joe Franquinha is creating an operetta of hardware-inspired art by 150 artists in his store before your eyes, and even the jaded cannot claim to have experience such a rich, relevant and comedic art show.  “Joe, did you see the cat in the middle of the plants?” his mom asks about a sculpture during the last rush of installations that has run late into the wee hours every night this week.

In a Wiliamsburg hardware store opened by Joe’s dad and his uncle in 1962, even the curating of a 200-piece art show is a family affair.  A light opera of jazz and syncopated rhythms and even burlesque, as you roll through the aisles the mostly local art sings arias and raps rhymes of the working people from every hook and particle board, dangled  from the ceiling, and, in the case of Street Artist Olek, crocheted entirely around a shopping cart and hand truck.

Olek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For a decade Manny and his young son Joe, now in his late twenties, have thrown open the doors of the store to invite the artistic newcomers in this neighborhood to bring their creativity inside. What may be seen as a sly marketing maneuver to court a changing demographic actually morphed into a celebration of community, and comedy, with little tragedy.  Cast on this leveling stage, Joe’s own passion for the arts enables a rare harmonic volley, where new talents never shown in a gallery before are hanging in the same aisle as more established performers with a global audience.  As a participant in this real time interactive play, it’s up to you to discover them among the flat latex paint and gardening gloves.

BSA gives our thanks to Joe as a partner in provoking and invoking the creative spirit, and with this little sneak preview, encourages you to hop on the L train to Lorimer today and check it out.  Follow the sound of bands and DJs and the smell of food vendors and walk past Jon Burgerman doodling all over a car on the sidewalk and you’ll be at the front door of Brooklyn’s own curious ode to hardware.

Aakash Nihalani (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bert Shuck (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Erwin Sanchez (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist General Howe has been manufacturing arms to sell on the open market. What you do with them is your business. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mike Graves creates this horny monk-like flasher installed on the aerosol cage. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mike Graves (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mike Graves (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A hardware tiara by Josh Cote (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rachel Farmer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

New on the scene Street Artist Radical! gets his hand in the cookie jar.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A depiction of the historic first space buff by Steve Browning (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist Veng of RWK has a lot on his head these days (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist XAM hangs one of his sophisticated birdhouses on a sign in Crest. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click on the link below for more details about CrestFest and The Crest Hardware Art Show:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=21765

238

138

45